By Gibson Johns for AOL.com
Call it the Taylor Swift Effect.
It's been a month since the pop star famously broke her silence on her personal politics with a lengthy Instagram post, and she's continuing to have a major impact on driving young voters to the polls through Election Day on Tuesday, November 6.
Swift, who is registered to vote in Tennessee, has been an outspoken proponent of getting to people to register, vote early or turn out on election day itself to make their voices heard by voting in the midterm elections, and the numbers prove that her decision to finally speak out inspired people to take action.
Per the New York Post, TargetSmart reports that 97,826 people between the ages of 18-29 voted early in Tennessee this year, a 663 percent increase from the 12,812 people from the same cohort who voted early in the 2014 elections.
The figure comes after Vote.org reported that in the 24 hours after Swift's initial call to action on October 7, 64,000 new people registered to vote across the country. One day later, that number was 212,871, over half of whom were between the ages of 18 and 29.
Swift herself also voted early -- for Democratic candidate for Senate, Phil Bredesen, who is competing against Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn. The singer said that pro-Trump Blackburn's "voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies" her.
On Tuesday morning, after weeks of posting screenshots of her fans voting early, Swift once again took to Instagram to urge people to vote in the midterms. "So what is today? Tuesday? What was it that everyone was supposed to do today?" Swift said. "Oh yeah, gotta go vote today. I'm seeing a lot of underestimation of young voters and this new generation, who now have the right to vote just in the last couple of years. But these are people who grew up post-9/11. They grew up with school shooting drills at their schools. These are people who want to vote."
"It's not enough to just want change. It's not enough to just want to vote," she added. "You have to go and make change by voting, and today is your opportunity to do that. I promise you it feels so wonderful to exercise that right that you have."
Source: AOL.com
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